When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the
mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint
him. … 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a
young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were
alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be
alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been
raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But
go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee;
there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 So
they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them;
and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Mark
16: 1, 5-8 (NRSV)
Last month I attended Presbytery meeting at Westminster
Presbyterian Church, and its pastor Andy McDonald preached on the Gospel of
Mark. It’s a short book: you can read it in an hour. The action moves quickly
in Mark’s gospel, with a sense of urgency. There are numerous accounts of
healing and the casting out of demons by the disciples as well as Jesus. The
most notable aspect of the book of Mark, however, is its abrupt ending. The
oldest versions of the text of this gospel close with the verses quoted above.
Additional verses (9-20) were appended later, but they clearly don’t match the
rest of the gospel in style. Why the sudden
ending? Did something happen to Mark before he completed his Gospel? Was a page
of the original manuscript left in the copier? Pastor McDonald suggested that
it is now up to us to finish this gospel, not with words, but by the way we
live our lives. And the way to live our lives is to model our activities after those
of Jesus and the disciples. What did they do in Mark’s gospel? They healed and
the cast out demons.
Therefore, We should seek to heal: to heal families that
have been torn apart by addiction or incarceration or separation, to heal a
society polarized along ethnic, economic, and political lines, to heal a world separated
into quarreling nations.
Demons? I used to
think of demons as a quaint and primitive idea. Are there really demons possessing
individuals? Yes! We know what demons we face today: the demons of racism and
sexism, demons that convince men in entertainment, sports, business, and politics
that they can exploit women and girls, demons that tell people that their
religious beliefs compel them to oppress those who do not share those beliefs.
As the disciples learned, some demons are so powerful that
prayer is required to exorcise them. (Maybe working together, too.)
Prayer: God give us the strength to follow in the footsteps
of Jesus and his disciples.
Bill Wehrbein
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